upgrading from slink to potato

["Jim Ruby" <jim@djruby.org>]

Hi,

I would like to upgrade to the latest linux kernel version 2.2.12.  Right
now I am running slink 2.1.  I was told I needed to upgrade to potato to
make the best use with the least amount of problems with the best
compatability.

Here is what I have in my /etc/apt/sources.list file

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian potato main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US potato non-US

Next I did an apt-get update and the non-us stuff was not found.  I've read
the 'info sources.list' page and it looks right to me.
The potato main, contrib and non-free stuff went ok.

I'm not sure of the best safest way to complete the upgrade from slink to
potato.

I tried an apt-get upgrade and I seen that there was a bunch of things that
were going to be held back.  Not sure why, but I see there is a flag I can
use --ignore-holds that will get around this and upgrade everything.

What are the differences between upgrade, dselect-upgrade and dist-upgrade

Thanks for helping a newbie out.